Other books that might interest you

• 

  Moby Dick; or the Whale

  Herman Melville

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  This great, genre-bending novel nominally centres on the quest of the monomaniacal Captain Ahab to gain revenge for the loss of his leg to an apparently malicious white sperm whale known in the fishery as Moby Dick.At times the compulsive and bombastic Captain Ahab sounds more like a figure from grand guignol than a reincarnated Lear, and listeners may find themselves wondering if the story of Ahab's attempted revenge, as narrated by Ishmael, one of his crew members, is at least partly a pretext allowing the author to explore other subjects in which he actually has a deeper interest — themes including the true brotherhood of man, the wondrous qualities, varieties and behaviour of whales themselves, and the immense courage and ingenuity required of the men who hunted these whales for their oil in the mid-nineteenth century.

  Show book

• 

  The Short Stories of Stephen...

  Stephen Crane

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Stephen Crane was born 1st November, 1871 in Newark, New Jersey and was the eighth surviving child out of fourteen.  Incredibly he began writing at the age of four and was published several times by the age of sixteen.   
   
  Crane only began a full-time education when he was nine but quickly mastered the grades needed to catch up and move forward. Although educated at Lafayette and Syracuse he had little interest in completing university and was keener to move on to a career, declaring college to be ‘a waste of time’.  By twenty he was a reporter and two years later had published his debut novel ‘Maggie: A Girl of the Streets’.  In literary circles this was hailed as the first work of American literary Naturalism.  
   
  Two years later, in 1895, he was the subject of worldwide acclaim for his Civil War novel, written without the benefit of any actual war experiences, ‘The Red Badge of Courage’.  It was indeed a masterpiece and his finest hour.  A year later life began its downwards descent when he became embroiled in a scandal which was to doom his career.  In attempting to help a suspected prostitute being falsely charged by a policeman he became the target of the authorities. 
   
  Later the same year en-route to Cuba as a War Correspondent he met the hotel madam Cora Taylor in Jacksonville, Florida.  This was to become the defining relationship of his life.  Continuing his journey, somewhere between Florida and Cuba his ship sank, and he was cast adrift for several days.  Rescued, he returned to cover conflicts wherever they were situated, some as far away as Greece.  For a time he lived in England with Cora, usually beyond their means, befriending fellow writers such as H G Wells and Joseph Conrad.    
   
  In declining health and beset by money problems, Stephen Crane died of tuberculosis, aged a mere 28 on 5th June 1900, at Badenweiler, Germany. He is buried in New Jersey. 
  01 - Stephen Crane - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  02 - The Open Boat by Stephen Crane 
  03 - The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky by Stephen Crane 
  04 - The Veteran by Stephen Crane 
  05 - A Dark Brown Dog by Stephen Crane

  Show book

• 

  The Giant Wisteria - From their...

  Charlotte Perkins Gilman

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born on 3rd July 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut, to an unaffectionate mother and a father who abandoned her and her older brother to a life of poverty. 
  Inevitably her schooling was limited and by 15 she had attended seven different schools but received only four years education.  However Charlotte was resourceful and did spend time with her father’s aunts – the suffragist Isabella Beecher Hooker and the ‘Uncle Tom Cabin’s’ author, Harriet Beecher Stowe as well as many hours at the public library studying ancient civilisations. 
  In 1878, she enrolled in classes at the Rhode Island School of Design where she met Martha Luther and they developed a close relationship until Luther married in 1881. Charlotte was devastated and detested romance and love until she met and married the artist Charles Walter Stetson.  
  Their only child, Katharine Beecher Stetson, was born in 1885 but left Charlotte with post-natal depression, then often dismissed as a case of hysteria or nerves.  Unsuited to domestic life she ruptured her life and moved to California with Katherine.  She divorced in 1894 and then sent Katharine east to live with her father and his second wife confirming that his paternal rights be acknowledged and that Katherine establish a relationship with her father. 
  After her mother died in 1893, Charlotte moved back east and became involved with her first cousin, Wall Street attorney, Houghton Gilman who she married in 1900. After his death she moved back to California, where Katherine now lived.   
  Her most popular story is ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ which touched on her own post-partum depression and underlined the need for women to be responsible for their mental and physical well-being, as the narrator is ordered by her husband/doctor to take compete rest in her room where she is isolated and becomes obsessed with the revolting yellow wallpaper.   
  She wrote other notable short stories the best of which we also include.   
  Charlotte lectured widely for social reform, wrote important non-fiction works that questioned our patriarchal system and left a legacy as a leading and positive spokesperson for feminism.  
  She was diagnosed with incurable breast cancer in 1932 and, as she wrote in her suicide note and autobiography, she ‘chose chloroform over cancer’    
  Charlotte Perkins Gilman took her own life on 17th August 1935, aged 75, in Pasadena, California.

  Show book

• 

  Forgotten Authors The - Volume 9...

  Rina Ramsay, William Pett Ridge,...

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Throughout the long centuries of human history is the want, and the need, to share information, to exchange ideas and for that knowledge and experience, for curiosity and learning, to be the basis of a civil society. 
  In literature the ambition is much narrower.  In order to be known, to be popular, you had to be published.  And for that people had to know you existed and your ideas worth reading.  Obviously for most of humanity’s time people couldn’t read and texts couldn’t be published in any great number. 
  In the 15th Century Gutenberg’s printing press began the revolution to address the second and by the 19th century had gathered pace with startling speed and mass distribution.  Education for the many was brought in to help people understand more of their world and, with new skills, how to have a better place within it.  Now, if the powers that owned the presses and means of distribution agreed an audience would now be able to avail themselves of your ideas, your printed words.  
  Sadly, in the thirst for the new, the recent and the past fell from sight, relegated to dark corners and dusty shelves.   
  But the printed word is rarely without someone, somewhere busying themselves through piles of papers and books rediscovering what a good story is, whatever its age. 
  Sadly, in the thirst for the new, the recent and the past fell from sight, relegated to dark corners and dusty shelves.    
  But the printed word is rarely without someone, somewhere busying themselves through piles of papers and books rediscovering what a good story is, whatever its age. 
  In this volume we offer up a small selection of those talents whose time has now come again.

  Show book

• 

  It Is in You

  Darlene Hawes

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  This captivating collection of short stories features both real and fictitious characters who, like all of us, grapple with life's challenges. Within these pages, you'll discover the potential to become better, happier, more balanced, content, humble, and successful individuals. Through her distinctive and compelling prose, Darlene Hawes illustrates how some characters surrender to the giving and receiving of love, while others choose self-destruction. Her transfixing and detailed storytelling highlights the importance of self-awareness and mindfulness in shaping our lives. Interwoven musical reflections remind us that our vibrations resonate with truth: energy does not lie. By knowing ourselves and striving for self-mastery, we can achieve victory. These stories reveal the extraordinary within the ordinary.

  Show book

• 

  Unfamiliar Ports

  Marc Everitt

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Unfamiliar Ports 
  Step on board for a journey. We’ll find ourselves dropping anchor in new harbours and we’ll see things we haven’t seen before. Destinations that are surprising, and ones that are often dangerous. Along the way, we’ll reconnect with a couple of travellers we might have met elsewhere, and we’ll cross paths with a lot of new faces; not all of whom will prove to be the most congenial company. 
  Nine short stories set in the past, the present and the future.

  Show book